Good thing it’s the kind of contaminated garbage that heals the wounds of a planet and nation, yes? GM insists that contaminated oil booms used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup wouldn’t have been recycled by anyone else and that, according to John Bradburn, manager of GM’s waste-reduction efforts
This was purely a matter of helping out. If sent to a landfill, these materials would have taken hundreds of years to begin to break down, and we didn’t want to see the spill further impact the environment. We knew we could identify a beneficial reuse of this material given our experience.
Possibly even more importantly, all that bad British Petroleum PR would have just sat there bumming people out about the impacts of oil dependence. Thank goodness GM’s PR team had the experience to break it down, clean it off and transform it into good PR about the semi-petroleum-independent Chevy Volt.
Probably not the headline GM PR envisioned when they developed their press release…
Wow… Chevy does run deep!
hehe i was thinking the same thing
I know we’re supposed to be sceptical about this kind of PR, but it seems pretty legit to me with the video and everything. Sure, it’s not going to save the world, but it’s a downside better than dumping this oil waste into a landfill. I might be imagining things but the sentence “Thank goodness GM’s PR team had the experience to break it down, clean it off and transform it into good PR about the semi-petroleum-independent Chevy Volt” gives me the impression you’re being a bit bitter about Gubment Motors actually doing some environmentally friendly stuff.
I think good PR is fine as long as it’s derived from actually doing something well, which seems to be the case here. I’m sure GM and possibly Obama will take advantage of this if they see an oppertunity to do so, but they have every right to as long as they actually back it up with good behaviour like this that (at first sight) makes a lot of sense and benefits the people, right?
Or should they just keep building big SUVs so we can keep bashing Obama Motors?
As the guy on point for this at the company, let me help you all with a few facts. One, the issue of these booms ending up in a landfill where they could sit as oil soaked contamintaed booms for a few hundred years before decomposing was not a theoretical concern–that’s where they were being shipped by those handling the Gulf mess until we provided a better solution. The 100 miles or so of boom material we are recycling would have had a similar fate or been incinerated. Two, we did this with no help or power of sugestion from anyone other than the folks around here who spend all their time trying to find new ways to be as environmentally responsible as we can be. I’m proud to be working with people like this. We’ve got 76 landfill free plants (more than half our manufacturing facilities worldwide) and we’re going to keep improving that performance. We took that know how and applied it to a societal problem–for the skeptics and conspiracy theorists among you, sorry, but those are the facts. Finally, we found a way to do the boom recycling on a cost neutral basis with our suppliers–not a cost savings either, but it was cost neutral, so why not do it? Hope this helps with the understanding and the discussion. By the way, the Obama Administration found out about it the same way you all did when we told the public.
@mrobinson
Much thanks for the informed inside view.
I really am interested to know how the oil and water watse are handled after being spun out of the boom material, if you’re privvy to such details of the process.
You know, Ed, sometimes these headlines sound like the automotive equivalent of the Drudge Report – sensationalistic just to get one’s attention! I confess, it got mine.
Good for them if this is all it’s cracked up to be, of course. Apparently this will just fuel the fires of those commentors who refer to GM as Garbage Motors in the literal sense! “GarbageMotors” especially will glorify in this!
Seriously, the more trash that can be recycled for any reason is a good thing. I wish the world didn’t depend so much on our “throw-away” society and consumerism in general, but that’s the way it is currently. I say this now and then: “This too shall pass”.
Petroleum-based products (plastics) are in pretty much every modern car – even the greener than thou Prius and Leaf. I don’t see what the big deal is.
Well, I guess this will get the site some more publicity. A pity so much credibility has to be sacrificed along with it.
And hypocritical considering the Gawker bashing as of late.
This title is exactly why people say that TTAC has an anti GM/US auto industry slant. GM does something good, and the title makes it sound like the Volt is made out of nuclear waste.
@ Steven02…….+1
No, people say that TTAC has an anti GM/US auto industry slant because TTAC does have an anti GM/US auto industry slant. The headline is a mere reflection of that fact.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you can’t say anything bad about GM on this board, you probably shouldn’t post here.
I’d like to know what becomes of the “absorbed oil and wastewater”. Aside from that minor quibble, this looks like an entirely positive program. The editorial snarkiness used to present it is unwarranted.
In as much as this might be construed as greenwashing, it’s a worthy effort. Anything that can be recycled should be recycled. Recycling and conservation of materials is an excellent strategy for low cost and less environmental impact. Our grand and great-grandparents followed those principles, although they may have not realized it as such.
At least this effort is not as lame as Subaru’s commercials about their zero landfill efforts, they only have ONE plant in the US, it would be relatively easy to do. IIRC GM has 55 plants in the US, over half of those are zero landfill, and the rest are supposed to be zero landfill in the next couple of years. Maybe that fact isn’t quite as sexy as recycling used oil booms, but it will have a larger impact.
Recyclable materials are resources, not garbage. Give it a rest, Ed!
Ed, ignoring for a moment the worthiness or lack thereof of this recycling program:
I know nobody likes PR crap… but the fact the GM even has its wits about it sufficiently to seize a PR opportunity might be considered a hopeful sign. It wasn’t long ago that GM’s environmental (and other) PR was totally in the weeds. At least they are hustling… trying.
On an different note, I would be amazed if oil-contaminated booms or other material would simply be landfilled, as the PR suggests. It is a hazmat and needs to be recycled or treated.
Soy-lent green is people!
+1!
I fail to see why this site has to be so consistently negative regarding U.S. automakers. If GM is claiming a new generation of quality – ok, I can see the skepticism. If Ford is claiming they didn’t get bailed out when they did get some support – ok, let’s pull back the covers. But you fail to give credit where it is due. If this site is negative about everything, the criticism loses its potency and validity. You have to dispense praise when appropriate and assign criticism when appropriate so that your readers can view things in relative context. This looks to me like good action on the part of a major corporation.
I have no love for the General, but I don’t see what’s wrong with this initiative. Seems like a pretty good idea. Wouldn’t make any sense to do it, then say nothing about it. It’s a win-win, PR grab or not. Ed, have a cream soda and relax a little.
Recycling is a win-win, not a complete GM/EPA cluster$^#@ as indicated by the headline. The oil and plastic would have been recycled/used anyhow, no way is that stuff headed to a typical landfill. And some materials are easier/cheaper/safer to recycle anyways, like aluminum and steel. You don’t call the front fender in a new Audi contaminated trash because it’s made from a soda can I coughed on do you?
You never know, these may become very collectable, if they only have the material for a limited amount, imagine the future Ebay listing…….rare original Chevy Volt with the garbage interior….oh wait…….
Green is the 21st century’s substitute for God and this kind of marketing reminds me of Robert Tilton.
This is great! Now if only they could scrape the oil from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and put that in there too… We may not hear about the Deepwater Horizon disaster anymore, but the oil didn’t all just disappear.
At least some of the spilled oil is being put to good use. Good for GM. As for “contaminated garbage”? Landfill mining already exists, which can recover metals and plastics that can be recycled (often there is more metal, especially aluminum, in landfills than in ore). I for one welcome this.
Oil floats, it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the gulf. Oil that is collected from the top of the ocean is being harvested, refined and sold. Not that I am a BP fan, just want you to get the facts straight.
An article that I read stated that the majority of oil spilled did NOT float, and was suspended as a super blob in the Gulf. Maybe we shouldn’t assume that oil always floats. Or maybe the article I read (major magazine, but can’t recall which) was wrong.
This isn’t the article, but here’s others:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/16/gulf-oil-spill-bp
http://newsblog.projo.com/2010/08/uri-alums-paper-on-gulf-oil-sp.html
Oil floats, it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the gulf.
Oddly enough, it can and did sink:
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/09/13/where-is-the-oil-on-the-gulfs-bottom-scientists-say/
Steven02: pretty close to all of the oil is now at the bottom of the ocean. Not naturally, sure, but that’s where it is.
Not that I am a BP fan.
“Oil floats, it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the gulf. Oil that is collected from the top of the ocean is being harvested, refined and sold. Not that I am a BP fan, just want you to get the facts straight.”
Ahem. Wow, the things you learn…
As someone recently called out by Steve-O on another thread for not getting his “facts” straight, I have to say this extremely ignorant comment fills me with cheer. No, wait, that’s Christmas.
No cookie for you. And the Cruze still sucks.